Year

The Jewish year differed much in point of time, before, and after their sojourning in Egypt; and unless we could (which now is impossible) ascertain with more clearness whether their calculations were made by what is called the solar year, or the lunar year, that is, by the revolution of sun, or moon - - it is not possible to determine with accuracy the point. But all difficulties vanish in respect to the different periods of calculation, by whatever mode they are calculated, if we only are careful to consider the different dates from whence they take their calculation. As for example - - in the promise the Lord made to Abram, (Gen. xv. 13.) concerning the affliction of his seed in a strange land, and their deliverance from it, the Lord marked the period, four hundred years; but in counting up the time when that deliverance took place, Moses makes it "four hundred and thirty years.’’ But the period of both, is precisely the same, when the difference is allowed from the different dates of the commencement, or time, the account began. When it is said, as in Gen. xv. 13, "four hundred years, " it is connected with the birth of Isaac, which was thirty years after Abraham left Chaldea, and consequently, this period must be added to the account; and thus it will be found, by a parity of calculation in the several statements the Jewish year at different times give. See Hour.

The Hebrews had always years, of twelve months each. But at the beginning, and in the time of Moses, these were solar years, of twelve months; each having thirty days, except the twelfth, which had thirty-five. We see, by the reckoning that Moses gives us of the days of the deluge, Genesis vii, that the Hebrew year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days. It is supposed that they had an intercalary month at the end of one hundred and twenty years; at which time the beginning of their year would be out of its place full thirty days. But it must be owned, that no mention is made in Scripture of the thirteenth month, or of any intercalation. It is not improbable that Moses retained the order of the Egyptian year, since he himself came out of Egypt, was born in that country, had been instructed and brought up there, and since the people of Israel, whose chief he was, had been for a long time accustomed to this kind of year. But the Egyptian year was solar, and consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, and that for a very long time before. After the time of Alexander the Great, and the reign of the Grecians in Asia, the Jews reckoned by lunar months, chiefly in what related to religion, and the order of the festivals. St. John, in his Revelation, Rev 11:2-3; Rev 12:6; Rev 12:14; Rev 13:5, assigns but twelve hundred and sixty days to three years and a half, and consequently just thirty days to every month, and just three hundred and sixty days to every year. Maimonides tells us, that the years of the Jews were solar, and their months lunar. Since the completing of the Talmud, they have made use of years that are purely lunar, having alternately a full month of thirty days, and then a defective month of twenty-nine days. And to accommodate this lunar year to the course of the sun, at the end of three years their intercalate a whole month after Adar; which intercalated month they call Ve-adar, or the second Adar.

The beginning of the year was various among different nations: the ancient Chaldeans, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Armenians, and Syrians, began their year about the vernal equinox; and the Chinese in the east, and Latins and Romans in the west, originally followed the same usage. The Egyptians, and from them the Jews, began their civil year about the autumnal equinox. The Athenians and Greeks in general began theirs about the summer solstice; and the Chinese, and the Romans after Numa’s correction, about the winter solstice. At which of these the primeval year, instituted at the creation, began, has been long contested among astronomers and chronologers. Philo, Eusebius, Cyril, Augustine, Abulfaragi, Kepler, Capellus, Simpson, Lange, and Jackson, contend for the vernal equinox; and Josephus, Scaliger, Petavius, Usher, Bedford, Kennedy, &c, for the autumnal. The weight of ancient authorities, and also of argument, seems to preponderate in favour of the former opinion.

1. All the ancient nations, except the Egyptians, began their civil year about the vernal equinox: but the deviation of the Egyptians from the general usage may easily be accounted for, from a local circumstance peculiar to their country; namely, that the annual inundation of the Nile rises to its greatest height at the autumnal equinox.

2. Josephus, the only ancient authority of any weight on the other side, seems to be inconsistent with himself, in supposing that the deluge began in the second civil month, Dius, or Markeshvan, rather than in the second sacred month; because Moses, throughout the Pentateuch, uniformly adopts the sacred year; and fixes its first month by an indelible and unequivocal character, calling it Abib, as ushering in the season of green corn. And as Josephus calls the second month elsewhere Artemisius, or Iar, in conformity with Scripture, there is no reason why he should deviate from the same usage in the case of the deluge.

3. To the authority of Josephus, we may oppose that of the great Jewish antiquary, Philo, in the generation before him; who thus accounts for the institution of the sacred year by Moses:— “This month, Abib, being the seventh in number and order according to the sun’s course, or civil year, reckoned from the autumnal equinox is virtually the first, and is therefore called ‘the first month’ in the sacred books. And the reason, I think, is this: because the vernal equinox is the image and representative of the original epoch of the creation of the world. Thereby God notified the spring, in which all things bloom and blossom, to be an annual memorial of the world’s creation. Wherefore this month is properly called the first in the law, as being the image of the first original month, stamped upon it, as it were, by that archetypal seal.”

4. The first sacrifice on record seems to decide the question. The time of the sacrifice of Cain and Abel appears to have been spring; when Cain, who was a “tiller of the ground,” brought the first fruits of his tillage, or a sheaf of new corn; and Abel, who was “a feeder of sheep,” “the firstlings of his flock,” lambs: and this was done “at the end of days,” or “at the end of the year;” which is the correct meaning of the phrase מקצ ימים , and not the indefinite expression, “in process of time,” Gen 4:3. It is a remarkable proof of the accuracy of Moses, and a confirmation of this expression, that he expresses the end of the civil year, or “ingathering of the harvest,” by different phrases, בצאת השנה , “at the going out of the year,” Exo 23:16; and תקופת השנה , “at the revolution of the year,” Exo 34:22; as those phrases may more critically be rendered.

But, in process of time, it was found that the primeval year of three hundred and sixty days was shorter than the tropical year; and the first discovery was, that it was deficient five entire days, which therefore it was necessary to intercalate, in order to keep up the correspondence of the civil year to the stated seasons of the principal festivals. How early this discovery and intercalation was made, is nowhere recorded. It might have been known and practised before the deluge. The apocryphal book of Enoch, which probably was as old as the Septuagint translation of the Pentateuch, stated that “the archangel Ariel, president of the stars, discovered the nature of the month and of the year to Enoch, in the one hundred and sixty-fifth year of his age, and A.M. 1286.” And it is remarkable, that Enoch’s age at his translation, three hundred and sixty- five years, expressed the number of entire days in a tropical year. This knowledge might have been handed down to Noah and his descendants; and that it was early communicated indeed to the primitive Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Chinese, we learn from ancient tradition.

This article would be rendered too prolix were we to notice the various inventions of eminent men in different ages to rectify the calendar by adjusting the difference between lunar and tropical years; which at length was effected by Gregory XIII, in 1583. This Gregorian, or reformed Julian year, was not adopted in England until A.D. 1751, when, the deficiency from the time of the council of Nice then amounting to eleven days, this number was struck out of the month of September, by act of parliament; and the third day was counted the fourteenth, in that year of confusion.

The next year, A.D. 1752, was the first of the new style. Russia is the only country in Europe which retains the old style.

The civil year of the Hebrews has always begun at autumn, at the month they now call Tisri, which answers to our September, and sometimes enters into October, according as the lunations happen. But their sacred years, by which the festivals, assemblies, and all other religious acts, were regulated, begin in the spring, at the month Nisan, which answers to March, and sometimes takes up a part of April, according to the course of the moon. See MONTHS.

Nothing is more equivocal among the ancients, than the term year. It always has been, and still is, a source of disputes among the learned, whether on account of its duration, its beginning, or its end. Some people heretofore made their year consist only of one month, others of four, others of six, others of ten, and others of twelve. Some have divided one of our years into two, and have made one year of winter, another of summer. The beginning of the year was fixed sometimes at autumn, sometimes at the spring, and sometimes at midwinter. Some people have used lunar months, others solar. Even the days have been differently divided: some people beginning them at evening, others at morning, others at noon, and others at midnight. With some the hours were equal, both in winter and summer; with others, they were unequal. They counted twelve hours to the day, and as many to the night. In summer the hours of the day were longer than those of the night; but, on the contrary, in winter the hours of the night were longer than those of the day.

While the Jews continued in the land of Canaan, the beginnings of their months and years were not settled by any astronomical rules or calculations, but by the phasis, or actual appearance of the new moon. When they saw the new moon, they began the month. Persons were therefore appointed to watch on the tops of the mountain for the first appearance of the moon after the change. As soon as they saw it, they informed the sanhedrim, and public notice was given by lighting beacons throughout the land; though after they had been often deceived by the Samaritans, who kindled false fires, they used, say the Mishnical rabbins, to proclaim its appearance by sending messengers. Yet as they had no months longer than thirty days, if they did not see the new moon the night following the thirtieth day, they concluded the appearance was obstructed by the clouds, and, without watching any longer, made the next day the first of the following month. But after the Jews became dispersed through all nations, where they had no opportunity of being informed of the first appearance of the new moon, as they formerly had, they were forced to make use of astronomical calculations and cycles for fixing the beginning of their months and years. The first cycle they made use of for this purpose was of eighty-four years. But that being discovered to be faulty, they came afterward into the use of Meto’s cycle of nineteen years, which was established by the authority of Rabbi Hillel Hannasi, or prince of the sanhedrim, about A.D. 360. This they still use, and say it is to be observed till the coming of the Messiah. In the compass of this cycle there are twelve common years, consisting of twelve months, and seven intercalary years, consisting of thirteen months. We find the Jews and their ancestors computing their years from different eras, in different parts of the Old Testament; as, from the birth of the patriarchs, for instance, of Noah, Gen 7:11; Gen 8:13; afterward from their exit out of Egypt, Num 33:38; 1Ki 6:1; then from the building of Solomon’s temple, 2Ch 8:1; and from the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel. In latter times the Babylonish captivity furnished them with a new epocha, from whence they computed their years, Eze 33:21; Eze 40:1. But since the times of the Talmudical rabbins, they have constantly used the era of the creation.

There is not a more prolific source of confusion and embarrassment in ancient chronology, than the substitution of the cardinal numbers, one, two, three, for the ordinals, first, second, third, &c, which frequently occurs in the sacred and profane historians. Thus Noah was six hundred years old when the deluge began, Gen 7:6; and presently after, in his six hundredth year: confounding complete and current years. And the dispute whether A.D. 1800, or A.D. 1801, was the first of the nineteenth century, should be decided in favour of the latter; the former being in reality the last of the eighteenth century; which is usually, but improperly, called the year one thousand eight hundred, complete; whereas it is really the one thousandth, eight hundredth; as in Latin we say, Anno Domini millesimo octingentesimo. There is also another and a prevailing error, arising from mistranslation of the current phrases, μεθ’ ημερας οκτω, μετα τρεις ημερας, &c, usually rendered, “after eight days,” “after three days,” &c; but which ought to be rendered “eight days after,” “three days after,” as in other places, μετα τινας ημερας, μετ’ ου πολλας ημερας, which are correctly rendered “some days after,” “not many days after,” in our English Bible, Act 15:36; Luk 15:13, the extreme days being included. Such phrases seem to be elliptical, and the ellipsis is supplied, Luk 9:28, speaking of our Lord’s transfiguration, μετα τους λογους τουτους, ωσει ημεραι οκτω: “After these sayings, about eight days,” or rather about the eighth day, counted inclusively; for in the parallel passages, Mat 17:1, Mar 9:2, there are only “six days,” counted exclusively, or omitting the extremes. Thus, circumcision is prescribed, Gen 17:11, when the child is “eight days old;” but in Lev 12:3, “on the eighth day.” And Jesus accordingly was circumcised, οτε επλησθησαν ημεραι οκτω, “when eight days were accomplished,” Luk 2:21; whereas John the Baptist, τη ογδοη ημερα, “on the eighth day.” The last, which was the constant usage, explains the meaning of the former. This critically reconciles our Lord’s resurrection, μετα τρεις ημερας, “three days after,” according to Mat 27:63; Mar 8:31; with his resurrection, τη τριτη ημερα, “on the third day,” according to Mat 16:21; Luk 9:22; and according to fact: for our Lord was crucified on Good Friday, about the third hour; and he arose before sunrise, πρωι, “early,” on Sunday; so that the interval, though extending through three calendar days current, did not in reality amount to two entire days, or forty-eight hours. This phraseology is frequent among the most correct classic writers. Some learned commentators, Beza, Grotius, Campbell, Newcome, render such phrases, “within eight days,” “within three days;” which certainly conveys the meaning, but not the literal translation, of the preposition μετα, “after.” In memory of the primeval week of creation, revived among the Jews, after their departure from Egypt, their principal festivals, the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, lasted a week each. They had weeks of seven years a piece, at the term of which was the sabbatical year; as also weeks of seven times seven years, that were terminated by the year of jubilee; and finally weeks of seven days. And it is remarkable that, from the earliest times, sacrifices were offered by sevens. Thus, in the patriarch Job’s days, “seven bullocks and seven rams were offered up for a burnt offering” of atonement, by the divine command, Job 42:8. The Chaldean diviner, Balaam, built seven altars, and prepared seven bullocks and seven rams, Num 23:1. And the Cumaean sibyl, who came from Chaldea, or Babylonia, gives the same directions to AEneas, that Balaam did to Balak:

Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare juvencos

Praestiterit, totidem lectas, de more, bidentes.

“Seven bullocks, yet unyoked, for Phoebus choose, And for Diana seven unspotted ewes.” DRYDEN.

And when the ark was brought home by David, the Levites offered seven bullocks and seven rams, 1Ch 15:26. And hence we may account for the peculiar sanctity of the seventh day, among the older Heathen writers, even after the institution of the Sabbath fell into disuse, and was lost among them.

THE FALLOW or SABBATIC YEAR. Agricultural labour among the Jews ceased every seventh year. Nothing was sown and nothing reaped; the vines and the olives were not pruned; there was no vintage and no gathering of fruits, even of what grew wild; but whatever spontaneous productions there were, were left to the poor, the traveller, and the wild beast, Lev 25:1-7; Deu 15:1-10. The object of this regulation seems to have been, among others, to let the ground recover its strength, and to teach the Hebrews to be provident of their income and to look out for the future. It is true, that extraordinary fruitfulness was promised on the sixth year, but in such a way as not to exclude care and foresight, Lev 25:20-24. We are not to suppose, however, that the Hebrews spent the seventh year in absolute idleness: they could fish, hunt, take care of their bees and flocks, repair their buildings and furniture, manufacture cloths of wool, linen, and of the hair of goats and camels, and carry on commerce. Finally, they were obliged to remain longer in the tabernacle or temple this year, during which the whole Mosaic law was read, in order to be instructed in religious and moral duties, and the history of their nation, and the wonderful works and blessings of God, Deu 31:10-13. This seventh year’s rest, as Moses predicted, Lev 26:34-35, was for a long time neglected, 2Ch 36:21; after the captivity it was more scrupulously observed.

As a period of seven days was every week completed by the Sabbath, so was a period of seven years completed by the sabbatic year. It seems to have been the design of this institution, to afford a longer opportunity than would otherwise have been enjoyed for impressing on the memory the great truth, that God the Creator is alone to be worshipped. The commencement of this year was on the first day of the seventh month, Tishri, or October. During the continuance of the feast of tabernacles this year, the law was to be publicly read for eight days together, either in the tabernacle or temple, Deu 31:10-13. Debts, on account of there being no income from the soil, were not collected, Deu 15:1-2; they were not, however, cancelled, as was imagined by the Talmudists, for we find in Deu 15:9, that the Hebrews are admonished not to deny money to the poor on account of the approach of the sabbatical year; during which it could not be exacted; but nothing farther than this can be deduced from that passage, Nor were servants manumitted on this year, but on the seventh year of their service, Exo 21:2; Deu 15:12; Jer 34:14.

THE YEAR OF JUBILEE followed seven sabbatic years; it was on the fiftieth year, Lev 25:8-11. To this statement agree the Jews generally, their rabbins, and the Caraites; and say farther, that the argument of those who maintain that it was on the forty-ninth, for the reason that the omission to till the ground for two years in succession, namely, the forty- ninth and fiftieth, would produce a famine, is not to be attended to. It is not to be attended to, simply because these years of rest being known long beforehand, the people would of course lay up provision for them. It may be remarked farther in reference to this point, that certain trees produced their fruits spontaneously, particularly the fig and sycamore, which yield half the year round, and that those fruits could be preserved for some months; which explains at once how a considerable number of the people might have obtained no inconsiderable portion of their support. The return of the year of jubilee was announced on the tenth day of the seventh month, or Tishri, October, being the day of propitiation or atonement, by the sound of trumpet, Lev 25:8-13; Lev 27:24; Num 36:4; Isa 61:1-2. Beside the regulations which obtained on the sabbatic year, there were others which concerned the year of jubilee exclusively:

1. All the servants of Hebrew origin on the year of jubilee obtained their freedom, Lev 25:39-46; Jer 34:7, &c.

2. All the fields throughout the country, and the houses in the cities and villages of the Levites and priests which had been sold on the preceding years, were returned on the year of jubilee to the sellers, with the exception of those which had been consecrated to God, and had not been redeemed before the return of the said year, Lev 25:10; Lev 25:13-17; Lev 25:24-28; Lev 27:16-21.

3. Debtors, for the most part, pledged or mortgaged their lands to the creditor, and left it to his use till the time of payment, so that it was in effect sold to the creditor, and was, accordingly, restored to the debtor on the year of jubilee. In other words, the debts for which land was pledged were cancelled; the same as those of persons who had recovered their freedom after having been sold into slavery, on account of not being able to pay. Hence it usually hppened in the later periods of Jewish history, as we learn from Josephus, that, at the return of jubilee, there was a general cancelling of debts.

The Hebrew year consisted of twelve unequal months, which, previously to the exile, were lunar. The twelve solar months made up only 354 days, constituting a year too short by no fewer than eleven days. This deficiency would have soon inverted the year, and could not have existed even for a short period of time without occasioning derangements and serious inconvenience to the Hebrews, whose year was so full of festivals. At an early day, then, we may well believe a remedy was provided for this evil. The course which the ancients pursued is unknown, but Ideler (Chronol. i. 490) may be consulted for an ingenious conjecture on the subject. The later Jews intercalated a month every two or every three years, taking care, however, to avoid making the seventh an intercalated year. The supplementary month was added at the termination of the sacred year, the twelfth month (February and March), and as this bore the name of Adar, so the interposed month was called Veadar, or Adar the Second. The year, as appears from the ordinary reckoning of the months (Lev 23:34; Lev 25:9; Num 9:11; 2Ki 25:8; Jer 39:2; comp. 1Ma 4:52; 1Ma 10:21), began with the month Nisan (Est 3:7), agreeably to an express direction given by Moses (Exo 12:2; Num 9:1). This commencement is generally thought to be that of merely the ecclesiastical year; and most Jewish, and many Christian authorities, hold that the civil year originally began, as now, with the month Tisri. The ancient Hebrews possessed no such thing as a formal and recognized era. Their year and their months were determined and regulated, not by any systematic rules of astronomy, but by the first view or appearance of the moon. In a similar manner they dated from great national events, as the departure from Egypt (Exo 19:1; Num 33:38; 1Ki 6:1); from the ascension of monarchs, as in the books of Kings and Chronicles; or from the erection of Solomon’s temple (1Ki 8:1; 1Ki 9:10); and at a later period, from the commencement of the Babylonish captivity (Eze 33:21; Eze 40:1). When they became subjects of the Graeco-Syrian Empire they adopted the Seleucid era, which began with the year B.C. 312, when Seleucus conquered Babylon.

The Hebrews always had years of twelve months. But at the beginning, as some suppose, they were solar years of twelve months, each month having thirty days, excepting the twelfth, which had thirty-five days. We see, by the enumeration of the days of the deluge, Gen 7:1-8:22, that the original year consisted of three hundred and sixtyfive days. It is supposed that they had an intercalary month at the end of one hundred and twenty years, at which time the beginning of their year would be out of its place full thirty days. Subsequently, however, and throughout the history of the Jews, the year was wholly lunar, having alternately a full month of thirty days, and a defective month of twenty-nine days, thus completing their year in three hundred and fifty-four days. To accommodate this lunar year to the solar year, (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 47.7 seconds,) or the period of the revolution of the earth around the sun, and to the return of the seasons, they added a whole month after Adar, usually once in three years. This intercalary month they call Ve-adar. See MONTH.\par The ancient Hebrews appear to have had no formal and established era, but to have dated from the most memorable events in their history; as from the exodus out of Egypt, Exo 19:1 Num 33:38 1Ki 6:1 ; from the erection of Solomon’s temple, 1Ki 8:1 9:10; and from the Babylonish captivity, Eze 33:21 40:1. See SABBATICAL YEAR, and JUBILEE.\par The phrase, "from two years old and under," Mat 2:16, that is, "from a child of two years and under," is thought by some to include all the male children who had not entered their second year; and by others, all who were near the beginning of their second year, within a few months before or after. The cardinal and ordinal numbers are often used indiscriminately. Thus in Gen 7:6,11, Noah is six hundred years old, and soon after in his six hundredth year; Christ rose from the dead "three days after," Mat 27:63, and "on the third day," Mat 16:21 ; circumcision took place when the child was "eight days old," Gen 17:11, and "on the eighth day," Lev 12:3 . Compare Luk 1:59 2:21. Many slight discrepancies in chronology may be thus accounted for.\par

Year. The highest ordinary division of time. Two years were known to, and apparently used by, the Hebrews.

1. A year of 360 days appears to have been in use in Noah’s time.

2. The year used by the Hebrews from the time of the Exodus maybe said to have been then instituted, since a current month, Abib, on the 14th day of which the first Passover was kept, was then made the first month of the year.

The essential characteristics of this year can be clearly determined, though we cannot fix those of any single year. The year was essentially solar for the offering of productions of the earth, first-fruits, harvest produce and ingathered fruits, was fixed to certain days of the year, two of which were in the periods of great feasts, the third itself a feast reckoned from one of the former days. But it is certain that the months were lunar, each commencing with a new moon. There must, therefore, have been some method of adjustment. The first point to be decided is how the commencement of each gear was fixed.

Probably, the Hebrews determined their new year’s day by the observation of heliacal or other star-risings or settings known to mark the right time of the solar year. It follows, from the determination of the proper new moon of the first month, whether by observation of a stellar phenomenon or of the forwardness of the crops, that the method of intercalation can only have been that in use after the captivity, -- the addition of a thirteenth month whenever the twelfth ended too long before the equinox for the offering of the first-fruits to be made at the time fixed.

The later Jews had two commencements of the year, whence it is commonly but inaccurately said that they had two years, the sacred year and the civil year. We prefer to speak of the sacred and civil reckonings. The sacred reckoning was that instituted at the Exodus, according to which the first month was Abib; by the civil reckoning, the first month was the seventh. The interval between the two commencements was thus exactly half a year.

It has been supposed that the institution at the time of the Exodus was a change of commencement, not the introduction of a new year, and that thenceforward the year had two beginnings, respectively at about the vernal and the autumnal equinox. The year was divided into --

i. Seasons. Two seasons are mentioned in the Bible, "summer" and "winter." The former properly means the time of cutting fruits, the latter that, of gathering fruits; they are therefore originally rather summer and autumn than summer and winter. But that they signify ordinarily, the two grand divisions of the year, the warm and cold seasons, is evident from their use for the whole year in the expression "summer and winter." Psa 74:17; Zec 14:18.

ii. Months. See Months.

iii. Weeks. See Weeks.

shanah, a repetition, like the Latin annus, "year." Literally, a circle, namely, of seasons, in which the same recur yearly. The 360 day year, 12 months of 30 days each, is indicated in Dan 7:25; Dan 12:7, time (i.e. one year) times and dividing of a time, or 3 1/2 years; the 42 months (Rev 11:2), 1260 days (Rev 5:3; Rev 12:6). The Egyptian vague year was the same, without the five intercalary days. So the year of Noah in Gen 7:11-24; Gen 8:3-4; Gen 8:13; the interval between the 17th day of the second month and the 17th of the seventh month being stated as 150 days, i.e. 30 days in each of the five months. Also between the tenth month, first day, and the first day of the first month, the second year, at least 54 days, namely, 40 + 7 + 7 (oxen. Gen 8:5-6; Gen 8:10; Gen 8:12-13). Hence, we infer a year of 12 months. The Hebrew month at the time of the Exodus was lunar, but their year was solar.

(See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, on P. Smyth’s view of the year marked in the great pyramid). The Egyptian vague year is thought to be as old as the 12th dynasty. (See EGYPT.) The Hebrew religious year began in spring, the natural beginning when all nature revives; the season also of the beginning of Israel’s national life, when the religious year’s beginning was transferred from autumn to spring, the month Abib or Nisan (the name given by later Hebrew: Exo 12:2; Exo 13:4; Exo 23:15-16; Exo 34:18; Exo 34:22). The civil year began at the close of autumn in the month Tisri, when, the fruits of the earth having been gathered in, the husbandman began his work again preparing for another year’s harvest, analogous to the twofold beginning of day at sunrise and sunset. "The feast of ingathering in the end of the year" (Exo 23:16) must refer to the civil or agrarian year.

The Egyptian year began in June at the rise of the Nile. Hebrew sabbatic years and Jubilees were counted from the beginning of Tisri (Lev 25:9-17). The Hebrew year was as nearly solar as was compatible with its commencement coinciding with the new moon or first day of the month. They began it with the new moon nearest to the equinox, yet late enough to allow of the firstfruits of barley harvest being offered about the middle of the first month. So Josephus (Ant. 3:10, section 5) states that the Passover was celebrated when the sun was in Aries. They may have determined their new year’s day by observing the heliacal or other star risings or settings marking the right time of the solar year (compare Jdg 5:20-21; Job 38:31). They certainly after the captivity, and probably ages before, added a 13th month whenever the 12th ended too long before the equinox for the offering of the firstfruits to be made at the time fixed. (See JUBILEE.)

In Exo 23:10; Deu 31:10; Deu 15:1, the sabbatical year appears as a rest to the land (no sowing, reaping, planting, pruning, gathering) in which its ownership was in abeyance, and its chance produce at the service of all comers. Debtors were released from obligations for the year, except when they could repay without impoverishment (Deu 15:2-4). Trade, handicrafts, the chase, and the care of cattle occupied the people during the year. Education and the reading of the law at the feast of tabernacles characterized it (Deu 31:10-13). The soil lay fallow one year out of seven at a time when rotation of crops and manuring were unknown; the habit of economizing grain was fostered by the institution (Gen 41:48-56).

Israel learned too that absolute ownership in the land was Jehovah’s alone, and that the human owners held it in trust, to be made the most of for the good of every creature which dwelt upon it (Lev 25:23; Lev 25:1-7; Lev 25:11-17; Exo 23:11, "that the poor may eat, and what they leave the beasts," etc.). The weekly sabbath witnessed the equality of the people as to the covenant with Jehovah. The Jubilee year witnessed that every Israelite had an equal claim to the Lord’s land, and that the hired servant, the foreigner, the cattle, and even wild beasts, had a claim. The whole thus indicates what a blessed state would have followed the Sabbath of Paradise, had not sin disturbed all. During 70 Sabbath years, i.e. 490, the period of the monarchy, the Sabbath year was mainly slighted, and so 70 years’ captivity was the retributive punishment (2Ch 36:20-21; Lev 26:34-35; Lev 26:43).

Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar exempted the Jews from tribute on the sabbatical year (Josephus Ant. 11:8, section 6, 14:10, section 6; compare 16, Section 2; 15:1, section 2; compare also under Antiochus Epiphanes, 1Ma 4:49); the institution has no parallel in the world’s history, and would have been submitted to by no people except under a divine revelation. The day of atonement on which the sabbatical year was proclaimed stood in the same relation to the civil year that the Passover did to the religious year. The new moon festival of Tisri is the only one distinguished by peculiar observance, which confirms the view that the civil year began then. The Hebrew divided the year into "summer and winter "(Gen 8:22; Psa 74:17; Zec 14:8), and designated the earth’s produce as the fruits of summer (Jer 8:20; Jer 40:10-12; Mic 7:1).

Abib "the month of green ears" commenced summer; and the seventh month, Ethanim, "the month of flowing streams," began winter. The ’atsereth or "concluding festival" of the feast of tabernacles closed the year (Lev 23:34). Both the spring feast in Abib and the autumn feast in Ethanim began at the full moon in their respective months. (See MONTH; SABBATICAL YEAR; JUBILEE.) The observances at the beginning festival of the religious year resemble those at the beginning festival of the civil year. The Passover lamb in the first month Abib corresponds to the atonement goats on the tenth of Tisri, the seventh month. The feast of unleavened bread from the 15th to the gist of Abib answers to the feast of tabernacles from the 15th to 22nd of Tisri. As there is a Sabbath attached to the first day as well as to the seventh, so the first and the seventh month begin respectively the religious and the civil year.

Year. The Jewish year had two commencements. The religious year began with the month Abib—April; the civil with Tisri—October. The year was solar. There were two seasons, summer and winter. Psa 74:17; Zec 14:8; Jer 36:22; Amo 3:15. The months were lunar, of 30 days each, and twelve in number, although a thirteenth was necessarily intercalated six times in every 19 years. It was called Ve-adar. The festivals, holy days, and fasts of the year were: 1. The feast of the Passover, the 14th day of the first month. 2. The feast of unleavened bread, in the same month, from the 15th to 21st, inclusive. 3. The feast of Pentecost, called also feast of harvest and "day of first fruits," on the day which ended seven weeks, counted from the 16th of the first month, that day being excluded. 4 The feast of trumpets, on the first day of the seventh month. 5. The day of atonement, a fast, on the tenth day of the seventh month. 6. The feast of tabernacles, or of gathering, from the 15th to the 22d day, inclusive, of the seventh month. The post-Mosaic festivals are Purim, in the twelfth month of Adar, 13th to 15th day; Dedication, on the 25th day of the ninth month. See Appendix.

Under the word MONTHS it has been stated that the Jews reckoned the months to consist alternately of twenty-nine and thirty days, being therefore in twelve months eleven and a quarter days short of the year. To remedy this an additional month was added about every three years. In the various data given for the last half of the last of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks, it will be seen that all the months are reckoned as having thirty days; thus ’a time, times, and a half’ in Dan 12:7 and Rev 12:14 point out three and a half years: this period is again called forty two months in Rev 11:2; Rev 13:5; and again twelve hundred and sixty days in Rev 11:3; Rev 12:6. The prophetic year may therefore be called three hundred and sixty days. See MONTHS and SEASONS.

YEAR.—See Time.

YEAR.—See Time.

yēr (שׁנה, shānāh, Aramaic שׁנה, sh^enah, “a return” (of the sun), like the Greek ἐνιαυτός, eniautós; ימים, yāmı̄m, “days,” is also used for “year,” and the Greek ἡμέραι, hēmérai, corresponds to it (Jos 13:1; Lk 17, 18); ἔτος, étos, is also employed frequently in the New Testament; for the difference between etos and eniautos, see Grimm-Thayer, under the word): The Hebrew year was solar, although the month was lunar, the adjustment being made in intercalation. See ASTRONOMY; TIME.

See Time.

Judaism uses a lunar/solar calendar consisting of months that begin at the new moon. Each year has 12 or 13 months, to keep it in sync with the solar year. Years are counted from the date of Creation. See Jewish Calendar.